Building on the Past
by kravenclaw
Summary: Oliver and Hermione bump into each other after not speaking for several years. Both are extremely successful and completely involved in their jobs. Will they give their friendship another chance, or will it develop into something more? Sequel to Love N


Disclaimer-J.K. Rowlings owns everything in this fic. I only own the plot and a few of the characters that came from my own imagination.

Oliver and Hermione bump into each other after not speaking for several years. Both are extremely successful and completely involved in their jobs. Will they give their friendship another chance, or will it develop into something more? Sequel to Love Never Dies.

A/N-This is the sequel to Love Never Dies and Fond Memories. I would suggest reading those both first because I didn't offer any explanation about the characters in this fic, and I think you would probably be a little lost if you didn't read them first. I hope you enjoy it, and please R/R!

Building on the Past

Chapter 1-Meeting again

Oliver Wood was late. He was supposed to meet his coach five minutes ago at the Leaky Cauldron, but was accosted by a disgruntled fan, and forced to sign countless autographs for him and his six aggressive friends. He missed the good old days where he could walk around town without being noticed as being a famous quidditch player. Only a few years before he could have told those kids he was a professional quidditch player and they would have laughed at him and asked why they hadn't heard of him, but now his face was on all the quidditch magazines and his name was regularly mentioned in the Daily Prophet. He was walking as fast as he could, trying to make up for the time he had lost while talking to the fans. He despised being late, especially when he was meeting his coach. Oliver knew that his coach hated waiting, and would give him a nice long lecture when he arrived. He laughed to himself as he thought of how the old man would probably punish him at the next practice. He turned the corner, his eyes still alive with laughter, and stood face to face with Hermione Granger. She looked very similar to the last time he had seen him, but to him she seemed very grown up and sophisticated. Not at all like the girl he had once known. She was wearing a navy business suit with matching robes over the top. Her hair was done in an elegant not, I far cry from the curly mess it had been the last time he'd seen her. She didn't see him, and kept walking. He turned quickly and took her by the arm before she was too far away from him.

"Hermione, Hermione Granger," He said as she turned around with a startled look on her face. She had started to jerk her arm away, but when she noticed who was holding on to it, she stopped her struggled.

"Oliver Wood, how have you been."

"I've been alright, how about you?"

"I'm fine. Busy as usual."

"Oh, me too. I'm late for a meeting with my quidditch coach."

"Oh, don't let me hold you up. I would hate for you to get in trouble because of me."

"Well, actually, it wouldn't be your fault, you see I was stopped by a bunch of people who wanted my autograph which made me late anyway."

"But still, I wouldn't want to make you later than you already are. You don't have to feel obligated to talk to me."

"What? No, I'm excited about see you again. Do you mind if I stop by your office or something sometime?"

"Of course not."

"Well, good. I'll try to stop by sometime tomorrow."

Hermione looked shocked at his casualness toward her. It had been a long time since they had last spoken, and he was acting as if they ran into each other all the time. "Okay, good seeing you." She wasn't quite sure how to act. He had thought casual easiness was the way to go, but she was unsure about the proper etiquette the situation required, so she stuck out her hand as they said their goodbyes.

It was not the unwelcome gesture she had imagined, and he took her hand and smiled down into her eyes. "I'll see you tomorrow, Ms. Granger." And he turned and continued his walk down the street.

Hermione stared after him for a few seconds, trying to get the image of her seeing him again, here, to process into her head. She shrugged and turned and continued toward her destination.

When Oliver walked into the Leaky Cauldron, he noticed that his coach looked mad as hell, but he couldn't help but smile as he sat down across from the angry old man.

"You better have a good reason you're twenty minutes late. I don't wait for anybody, especially bloody quidditch players on my bloody team!"

"I'm sorry, Coach. It's just I ran into these horrible fans that wouldn't stop asking for my autograph, and I was following orders, your orders in fact, to be as nice as possible to the fans because they were the ones who supported you."

"That was the worst excuse I've ever heard, Wood. And I know better than to believe it because you've got a damn goofy look on your face and its pissing me off. You don't look like someone who was unhappy about signing autographs. Now give me the truth, or I'll kick your arse right off the team, and I mean it!"

"Don't you think you're being a little dramatic, Coach?" He said with that same ornery smile on his face. When he saw that the other man was not impressed with his humor, he stated his explanation. "Well, that wasn't really a lie. It was a half truth. I was late partially because of horrible fans asking for autograph after autograph, and then after that I ran into an old friend."

"A girl, no doubt."

"Yes, a girl I knew from back in my Hogwarts days."

"You mean to tell me you stood me up for just some girl."

"She's a very important girl. I'm sure you've heard of her. Hermione Granger is her name."

"Aye, I've heard of her. Who the bloody hell hasn't heard of her. She was a friend of Harry Potter's. Now she's some important person at the ministry. She supposed to be one of the smartest people to graduate from that school since Dumbledore himself."

"Mmmm, yes, that's pretty well a perfect description of Hermione."

"And didn't she date Viktor Krum? Do you think we could get an edge on him next round because of her?"

"Uh, no Coach, I don't think so. Anyway, that's why I'm late. So you're going to forgive and forget right?"

"Not on your life. I'm gonna dock your pay, and you've got media duty. I expect you to give Witch Weekly an exclusive after next game. That'll keep them out of my hair tomorrow."

"Does it have to be Witch Weekly? Why can't it be for a quidditch magazine. They don't require me to wear goofy outfits so I can be their hunky cover boy."

"You earned it. Now no more complaining or I'll make you do that teenage magazine, you know how fun that is."

"Okay, I'm over it. So are we going to discuss what we came here for or not because if we're not going to, I bet I could still catch Hermione."

"Get your mind out of the gutter, son. Don't you ever think about anything but women? Why don't you think about quidditch for a change. After all it is your JOB!"

"Oh, stop it. You know I am as big of a quidditch fanatic as you are, and I will probably end up being an eternal bachelor just like you, so quit complaining. You know you're just stressing this because you're in the mood for a fight. I've worked for you for too long, not to know exactly what you're in the mood for, and right now I know that you are not in the shut up and listen to me and don't say a word mood. So quit bitching because I am in a good mood, and am not in the mood to continue this useless banter. I have more important things to do."

The old man laughed at the quidditch player he'd come to think of as a son. "Okay, Wood. If that's the way you want it, I really just wanted to get your opinion about this new play I designed. Are you sure that you don't want to fight for a little bit longer?"

Oliver laughed at his coach as he shook his head. "I don't think so, Coach. Not today anyway. It'd ruin my mood."

The two men sat discussing quidditch tactics for the next two hours, and when Oliver finally left the pub, he was in an even better mood than he had been when he had entered. When he walked out onto the street his smile faded as Pendelyn Lane approached him, with what some would have considered to be a seductively sweet smile on her face.

"Well hello there, Mr. Wood. How have you been? It's been awhile since we last met." Pendelyn said as she handed him her hand.

He took it reluctantly and replied. "Well, I was doing rather well until now."

"Ah, now sugar, don't be like that. I just wanted to do a little catching up. That's all."

"What do you want, Pendelyn?"

"Well, what do you mean, Oliver honey? Can't I just stop to say hello to an old friend."

"Where's this old friend that you're talking about because he sure as hell isn't me."

"Well, fine then. Next time I see you I won't be so nice to you."

"Just tell me what you want."

Pendelyn sighed and looked very put out. Her tone changed and she sounded more like her normal vindictive self than the sugar sweet person she had been acting like. "Are you still friends with that Granger woman?"

"Oh, you mean Hermione Granger?" Oliver said as he thought 'What's with Hermione today. I haven't had anyone ask me about her for a long time, and today I see her and have Pendelyn ask about her. Talk about strange."

"Yes, that's the one."

"No, we haven't talked in years, why?" Oliver lied easily.

"Because, I need to get an interview from her, and that horrible woman refused to talk with me. Apparently she's dating one of the Weasley twins, you know the ones who have that hugely popular joke shop. Apparently since they're such famous businessmen I have to write about who they are supposedly dating. Isn't that a laugh. The Weasley twins."

Oliver laughed as he said, "Well, I wonder why, Hermione won't talk to you. After all you are such a delightful conversationalist. Who could resist talking to you when you talk so eloquently about the person she's rumored to be dating? I don't know anyone who doesn't like having their partner made fun of like that. And I'm sure she would love to talk to you after the incident at the Quidditch World Cup a few years ago."

"You know it was the truth, Oliver. It's not my fault it wasn't something she wanted to hear."

"Well, I'm so sorry I can't help you, Pendelyn. I'd say its been nice talking to you, but that would be a lie. So I'll just say goodbye." Oliver said and he turned and walked down the street.

"What, Oliver. You owe me."

He turned and laughed as he said, "For what?"

"Well...okay, you don't owe me. But if you do this for me I'll owe you."

"No thanks, Pendelyn."

"Well, fine. I don't see what's so great about her anyway." She continued to watch his retreating figure and said, "Wait, Grayson wants to talk to you about something."

"Tell him I'm not interested."

"But I didn't tell you what he wanted," Pendelyn said.

"Doesn't matter. I don't want to have anything to do with one of your brothers schemes. And I want nothing to do with you either, for that matter." Oliver said and then apparated again.

Pendelyn scowled at the spot where Oliver had been only moments earlier. "I'll get her to talk to me." She thought out loud. "I get that interview, and I'll make Oliver pay. Stupid git. To think we used to be friends. And to think, he insulted Grayson. Why Grayson's a much better man than Oliver will ever be. Look at how many companies he owns, and all he wanted was to talk to his childhood friend. Who knows why he wanted to speak with that filth. Oliver's nothing to us anymore. Not since that day, he turned his back on us. I'll get him back when he least expects it. Just wait and see what I have in store for you, dear Oliver. Just you wait." She said before smiling deviously as she apparated back to the mansion she shared with her brother.

A/N-Well, there's the first chapter. It's a little short, and there's not too much Oliver and Hermione action, but I introduced the antagonist to you. I love Pendelyn, she's a fun character to write. And just wait, she's going to be trouble. But that's all I'm going to tell you about her. What did you think? They'll be more Oliver and Hermione in the next chapter.


End file.
